Tuesday, January 31, 2017

I didn't know that! That was on the cover of Sports Illustrated last summer and I don't get SI. I knew nothing about that until reading Brian Windhorst just now on ESPN.

He's chasing Jordan. I'll be damned. The number of Jordan's titles (five?). £'s got three and is so tetchy these days cuz Golden Pond hooked a whale in the summer, the Mistakers hooked DeAndre Liggins, the "Spurs" have £'s anointed BOAT coach, and Cleve has Tyronn Lue. £ is 33 and he doesn't have much time, as he reminded us all last week.

I wish the guy wasn't chasing a ghost though. You don't catch ghosts, right? It's like impossible? When the ghost is MJ, oooh boy. Realistically they have to win two championships in the next four years. That is doable by my lights, apparently not by £'s and his lights are considerably more penetrating than mine. (I know that's false modesty on my part. I am a quasar in the matter of lights.)

What if he catches his ghost? Wins two more. Does he want to PASS Jordan, win six? I wish he wasn't chasing in the first place and hope he isn't chasing to pass.

Monday, January 30, 2017

I am really pissed. That punk has pissed me off. I'm going to use this ill wind I'm feeling to blow a little more shade where I never have cast it before.

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade blew the bird right into the air pump last week. James diagnosis is almost certainly correct, his team is top heavy. But even in making the correct diagnosis, as James always does, it was premature and badly delivered to the patient. You can not even get ME to to blow foul air at Dan Gilbert on this one. That mother-fucker has given James every "human resource" James as asked for, and is paying for it big time, with $54 million in "luxury taxes." James was really pissed last week and to question the organization's "complacency" was not constructive, it was infuriating. James was clearly saying his pedestrian teammates were not good enough, and that is true, but he named names, the Traveling Man, DeAndre Liggins, was one. A Big One does not pick on a little one. That is cruel, it is bullying, it is unseemly, and it's not what a mentor does. A mentor works to make the little ones better. James has thrown in his cape on Liggins and the others. That was very unlike James and very counter-productive. Gilbert, Dave Griffin, the GM, and coach Tyronn Lue were blind-sided and upset. Liggins was hurt and demoralized.

£, you done fucked up. Now shut the fuck up.

D-Wade, as if in a competition of nasty with his former teammate and BFF, bested James. His teammates aren't just good enough, they don't care enough. That is insulting, more insulting than James' "they're not good enough," and also unlike James' tirade, it was untrue. The rest of the team took it predictably. There was an hour-long players-only meeting in which the young guys dared criticize their mentor: "Why don't YOU show more care, Mr. Wade, sir. Why don't YOU practice with us more, and sit out fewer back-to-backs?" The young guys had a vet who had their back, Rajon Rondo, who has never gotten along with Wade and vice versa. Wade was cut down to size.

Of the two teams, Chicago's is closest to beyond repair. The locker room is fractured and they weren't too good to begin with. I don't see how the situation can be salvaged. I don't know what got into Wade but he has done irreparable harm, probably.

Cleveland is in first place in the conference for crissakes. If management can swallow James' bitter pill and get some bargain basement help all should be well. But if management decides "We've had enough," the psychology may be to stand pat to spite James.

Then it came out recently that James told one of his key, not disposable, teammates, Tristan Thompson, that Thompson's baby's momma, Khloe Kardashian, was a "distraction," that Thompson should keep his alleged fiancee from attending games. Thompson responded predictably, with eight expletives in a four minute interview, the G-rated pith of which was, "I don't care what LeBron says."

That is new. James put enormous pressure on management to resign Thompson and now that they did, James is dictating to his family. THAT is not a good look. AT ALL. The NERVE of James! Somebody needs to say to LeBron James what Pat Riley said to his Boston counterpart Danny Ainge a few years ago. Somebody needs to say "LeBron James needs to shut the fuck up."

Have a nice night. Blowfish, I hope you explode tomorrow against Chelsea, you miserable cretin.

How in the world did I miss this yesterday...Get off the header Blowfish, you miserable cretin. I have another miserable cretin to put in your place...This guy,

--I am blown the fuck away--Alexandre Bissonnette, French-Canadian student at the University of Laval, walked into a Quebec City mosque and murdered six worshipping Muslims, a near identical mass murder to that of Dylann Roof in South Carolina.

Looks like he could be one of my daughter's college guy friends--clean cut, good-looking.

He has just released the frigging ball. It's barely in the picture. It's so high up #32 in black is looking straight to the heavens. And look at several people in the crowd and #23 in white--even now raising their arms in the three-point shot signal. Stoopid.

The Fourth Estate is tizzified over the new government in Washington. A campaign of fake news, alternative facts, and lies has led to a government of fake news, alternative facts, and lies. How to cover such a situation?

This site urged, with predictable traction, that mainstream pencils NOT cover the eventual Republican nominee as a serious candidate.

Now, they have to cover him. He's president. So here goes: cover what he does, not what he says.

You know half the things he says are going to be false, why provide him an amplifier? Why put yourselves in the position of having to write a "Trump lied" lede about the size of his inauguration crowd? Who cares?

The Trump lowlifes think the media lies about him. They hate the media. You think you're going to convince one lowlife that Trump lied? You're just amplifying his voice and reinforcing hatred of you.

There is no categorical imperative that says the media has to publish every goddamned thing a president says and there are libel laws against knowingly re-publishing known lies. Take the spirit of the libel laws and avoid a journalistic Gresham's Law: Just don't do it. Don't cover the lie by refuting it, just don't cover it. Cover what he does, not what he says.

The Elf Magician had 43 points including a half-courter set up by his own rebound and ridiculous behind-the-back dribble to get in "range" just before the half. Steph wheeled away, jump-fived a teammate, and body surfed on the court, a delighted smile on his face, for the rapturous crowd when he drew NBN. He and Steve Kerr were relaxed and smiling on the sideline during the time out. It was like last year.

When Curry's got it going, as he assuredly had last night in the 144-98 lambasting of LAC, there is no greater show on earth. He is the Oracle in the Oracle and that place is electric with joy. Cue Ludwig von.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Really cool coat of arms. Maybe need some more stuff there. Birds. Need more birds. Only have three birds...That is the stupidest, ugliest thing I've ever seen.

Along with general cargo, freight, raw materials such as coal and cotton, the city was also directly involved in the Atlantic slave trade. Liverpool was home to both the Cunard and White Star Line, and was the port of registry of the ocean liner RMS Titanic and others such as the RMS Lusitania, Queen Mary, and Olympic.-WikipediaWHAT'S ON. Come to Liverpool, mourn our lost restaurants, lost ocean liners, and lost slave trade. Root for our shit football club.

...the press may be tempted toward — and richly rewarded for — a kind of hysterical oppositionalism, a mirroring of Trump’s own tabloid style and disregard for truth....The danger for the established press...is the same danger facing other institutions in our republic: that while believing themselves to be nobly resisting Trump, they end up imitating him.

Such imitation will inspire reader loyalty and passion — up to a point. But beyond that point it’s more likely to polarize than to persuade, which means it often does a demagogue’s work for him.

No, ma'am. We ain't gonna do that. We're not blocking refugees and immigrants, not in Miami.

A federal judge in Brooklyn has stayed the executive order signed this week to send refugees here legally under then-existing law back to their home countries. Not in Brooklyn, not yet. NEVER in Miami. We will hide them out: start a modern Underground Railroad and have safe houses.

So, I've been reading a bit of the Liverpool "Echo" today, that's the name of their newspaper, the way I read the Cleveland "Plain-Dealer" last year and am damn glad I don't read it anymore! This year, I made a Choice, the "Echo" is where I go now for schadenfreude, the occasional insight, and a laugh or three:

It pissed him off. I emphasizedthat he was pissed off that guys didn't care enough.

"You got to do better with knowing film, knowing personnel."

Learning. Studying. Preparing. Practicing.

"I don't know if they care enough. So I can't say it is. I wish I could say that everyone in here is going to go home and not eat tonight. I can't say that. I wish I could, but I don't know that they care enough. Games are supposed to hurt. You're not supposed to sleep. You're not supposed to want to talk to anybody. These games are supposed to hurt. I don't know if that is in guys in this locker room."

"This just can't be acceptable if you want to do something besides have an NBA jersey on and make some money. That's all we're doing around here."

Wade ALSO said this:

"I'm 35, I'm not practicing every day. I mean, that's very clear. Everyone has their own things."

Welll...Those young guys wish Wade practiced more. You know, "rather than have an NBA jersey on and make some money." Maybe Wade needs to "hurt" more. Practicing would do that! But if not practicing is Wade's "thing" and "Everyone has their own things" then the young guys thing is to eat, sleep, and talk after painful losses. Wade has his thing, they want their thing. You know?

The young guys have a point. They have so many more points than Wade that Wade just lost another one.

Tweets

Yes, it was. And Wolves beat 'em at Anfield. Wolves aren't even in the Premier League. They're one level down in the Coca Cola Championship league. This was in the FA Cup. Liverpool were bounced out of the Capital One Cup on Wednesday. Been a bad week for cups in Liverpool, lolol. The "Anfields" only win in 2017 was over Plymouth Argyle, who play in the third level of English football.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Good for Bulls management. Wade with Butler as his nodding yes-man went too far, way too far. The rest of the team "doesn't care about losing." That's beyond the pale. So unlike D-Wade. He, and the others, had this coming.

"My vets would never go to the media. They would come to the team. ... My goal is to pass what I learned along. The young guys work. They show up. They don't deserve blame. If anything is questionable, it's the leadership," Rondo wrote on Instagram.

Doesn't this happen just about every time around this time of year? Wasn't David Blatt fired in January last year? Didn't £ go to Miami to take two weeks off his first year back in the Mistake?

The NBA season is sooo long, suchhh a grind. Isn't this going to happen? Is J.R. Smith done for the season? If he's not done for the season, if he comes back in time for the playoffs, won't that give £ the badly needed extra "body" he and the team need? The Mistakers are now 2-6 in their last eight. Alright! That blows! Reality check: They are still top of their conference. Lie down and take a powder.

Chi: Look, this is both Chi and Cleve, Dwyane Wade and £ hate to lose worse than any players since Jordan, they hate to lose as badly as Jordan did. As badly as Pat Riley does. DIGRESSION: Riley burned out a team with Magic, Kareem. and Worthy on it. Burned 'em out with his intensity, his hatred of losing. Conducted a practice WITH MAGIC, KAREEM, AND WORTHY in a hotel ballroommmm!) END DIGRESSION. Wade's "I'm not going out like this" will when he brought Miami back from the dead his first championship season there. Hell! Just last year! Against Charlotte in the 'loffs. D-Wade still had such desire tears were streaming down his stoic face duringthe introductions! FUCKKK. The point is, you can't get twelve guys on the same roster with that intense hatred of losing. You might not get twelve guys on the damn planet with that hatred of losing.

Now, Chi: D-Wade says only he and Jimmy Butler hate losing in the way one should hate losing--not being able to sleep (?); not being able to eat (??). Okay, whatever, that's his standard. When did Jimmy Butler join that company? And the other guys on that roster don't care at that level, they want to eat and sleep. Okay, can they snack and cat nap, at least? They made the salmon swim all the way to the NBA by being comme ci comme ca about losing?

Whatever, Wade is "pissed." Man, oh man. Irony of ironies. Remember Pat Riley's infamous press conference, the one he started at the end of the last season with the Big Three in Miami? Wade will remember! So will £! "You want to trend something?" spake Riles. "I'm pissed (palms slapped on table)." Riley said what had come up over and over again in exit interviews with the players--including Wade and £!--was that they were mentally fatigued, burned out. "I understand," Riles spake, but he didn't understand and most assuredly did not sympathize. "Winning championships is hard!" "You can't run out the first door. You stay, if you have the guts."

That'll get 'em. That's the kind of challenge £ will respond to, the kind that will keep him in Miami. Look it up. That's what all the professional pencils wrote (not this amateur pencil).

The point is, since you can't get twelve guys and a head coach who want to play for the Guantanamo "Cigars," should you "motivate" them with a sleep-deprivation-and-half-rations standard of loss hatred? The answer to that question is no.

Chicago had a Pat Riley-lite in Tom Thibodeau. That didn't work. They replaced him with a Mister Rogers, Fred Hoiberg. That isn't working. Maybe Chicago's players aren't good enough? Maybe there aren't any Baby Jordan's on that team just waiting to have the hatred of losing instilled in them before they shoost up and be all that they can be. Plausible?

"I don't know what happened. But we continue to be in these kinds of situations and lose games like this. Everyone don't care enough. You got to care enough, man. It's got to mean that much to you to want to win. And it doesn't. So I don't know what happened.

"I don't know how you fix it. It just doesn't mean enough to guys around here to want to win ballgames. It pisses me off, but I can't be frustrated and I can't care too much for these guys. They have to care for themselves. You got to do better. You got to do better with knowing where your shot's coming and knock them down. You got to do better with knowing film, knowing personnel. Just as a team, just got to do better, man.

"I don't know if they care enough. So I can't say it is. I wish I could say that everyone in here is going to go home and not eat tonight. I can't say that. I wish I could, but I don't know that they care enough. Games are supposed to hurt. You're not supposed to sleep. You're not supposed to want to talk to anybody. These games are supposed to hurt. I don't know if that is in guys in this locker room. Hopefully they can prove me wrong, but I will challenge them to see if losses like this hurt.

"We can play bad, we can miss shots, but we're having too many of these lapses. We're having too many of these losses. This just can't be acceptable if you want to do something besides have an NBA jersey on and make some money. That's all we're doing around here."

Man, there are no earthquakes or anything. It's all that guy. Even in sports, Tom Brady is friends with him. How about a nice war as a change of subject. Aren't there any wars somewhere? I'd even take the Olympics.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

There is only one soccer club in the world that I really dislike: Liverpool.

It started with the Cannibal of Liverpool, Luis Suarez, and his racist name-calling of Manchester United's Patrice Evra; then manager Kenny Dalglish's vocal, public, and frequent defense of the Cannibal. It continued under Jolly Rodgers and his oh-so-close title chasing season, that of the Gerrard Slip, Hit it! "Que Gerrard, Gerrard! He passed it to Demba Ba, he fell on his bloody arse, que Gerrard, Gerrard;" most exquisitely of Rodgers lame-brained attempt to catch City and its eight-goal edge that year by trying to run up the score on Crystal Palace in the last match of the season, resulting instead in,

[Oh! Excuse me whilst I spew my bodily essence at the memory.]

It was set in concrete with the Blowfish of Liverpool,

and the abuse heaped on Raheem Sterling for even thinking of leaving. "This is Anfield"! for godssake. (Which Sterling did, for City. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!).

It continues to this precise moment. Hit it!O when the Saints go marching inWhen the Saints go marching in

As I lay me down to sleep last night I thought of posting how dispirited and disengaged I feel, how I imagine 48.2% of my fellows feel. I feel as a victim of the electoral equivalent of the U.S. military's Shock & Awe strategy is intended to feel: dazed, bewildered, hopeless, a stranger in my own land, unable or unwilling to resist further. I thought of writing this as an appeal to President Obama, I could think of noone else, to lead a movement of resistance to shake me and mine off our asses. But then I fell asleep.
I haven't read much about Obama's successor. Deliberately. That's deliberate disengagement. But today I read Charles Blow and he and the organizers of the women's marches are the ones to whom to write such an appeal to spearhead such a movement:Saturday’s Women’s Marches across the country and around the world answered [Trump] with a thundering roar.The marches, whose participants vastly outnumbered inauguration attendees, offered a stinging rebuke to the election of a man who threatens women’s rights and boasts of grabbing women’s genitalia.And it was a message to America that the majority did not support this president or his plans and will not simply tuck tail and cower in the face of the threat. This was an uprising; this was a fighting back. This was a resistance.Members of Congress, laboring under the delusion that they operate with a mandate and feeling compelled to rubber-stamp Trump’s predilections, should heed well the message those marches sent on Saturday: You are on notice. America is ticked off.There has been much hand-wringing and navel gazing since the election about how liberalism was blind to a rising and hidden populism, about how identity politics were liberals’ fatal flaw, about how Democrats needed to attract voters who were willing to ignore Trump’s racial, ethnic and religious bigotry, his misogyny, and his xenophobia.I call bunk on all of that.I have given quite a few speeches since the election and inevitably some variation of this “reaching out” issue is raised in the form of a question, and my answer is always the same: The Enlightenment must never bow to the Inquisition.[The marches] were a rebuke of bigotry and a call for equality and inclusion. They demonstrated the awesome power of individual outrage joined to collective action. And it was a message to America that the majority did not support this president or his plans and will not simply tuck tail and cower in the face of the threat. This was an uprising; this was a fighting back. This was a resistance....The women’s marches sent a clear signal: Your comfort will not be built on our constriction. We are America. We are loud, “nasty” and fed up. We are motivated dissidents and we are legion.https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/opinion/we-are-dissidents-we-are-legion.html

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

"I just hope that we're not satisfied. I just hope we're not satisfied."We're not better than last year from a personnel standpoint."It's like when you don't have bodies. It's tough. The fucking grind of the regular season. We're a top-heavy team. We have a top-heavy team. We top-heavy as shit. It's me, [Kyrie Irving], [Kevin Love]. It's top-heavy."I'm not singling out anybody. I'm not. Yeah, we won [the championship], but fuck,. you know what, let's see if we can do something."We need a fucking playmaker. I'm not saying you can just go find one, like you can go outside and see trees. I didn't say that."[The Spurs] got bodies. They've got bodies. For the most part, all championship-contending teams has got guys that are ready to step in. Knock on wood, what if Ky goes down? For two weeks. Let's say two. What if I went down for three weeks?"...y'all are worried about five minutes. What if I went down for two weeks? Trying to build something, you know?"I don't know what we got to offer. I just know me, personally, I don't got no time to waste. I'll be 33 [next] winter, and I ain't got time to waste. That's what I'm talking about."We got to figure it out. It's been a shitty 2017 so far."
Never heard LeBron James like that. Never. He has got some beez in hiz bonnet, hoooo-doggie.

Monday, January 23, 2017

On Election Day I felt as though I had awakened in America and gone to sleep in Ecuador, or maybe Belgium. Or Thailand, or Zambia...

It’s different here, or at least it was. America was always supposed to be something, as much a vision as a physical reality, from the moment that John Winthrop, evoking Jerusalem, urged the Massachusetts Bay Colony to “be as a city upon a hill.”
...
I know that it may sound naïve, even childish, to think that any nation has a special destiny. It’s the kind of thing that dictators and demagogues like to tell their people...But we do. It’s inescapable, considering what we are: the first republic of the modern age, a nation of immigrants, haven to so many peoples from around the world. We have, like no other country, for better and for ill, dominated the modern world through both our hard power and our soft, our weapons but also our ideas.

...
The absolute conviction, in the end, that I, too, was caught up in the great work; that I was helping us to get to some higher place and fulfill our promise.
...
Nothing is settled anymore in America, and it appears that so many of the gains we have fought so hard to win over the years are about to be rolled back by our new president and the party that has so cravenly backed him, even when it knows better.
...
Yet when I say that I have lost the America I knew... I mean a greater, almost spiritual faith that I had in my fellow citizens and their better instincts, something that served as my north star in all I wrote and all I did.
...
[My parents] would have thought themselves transported to some other time and country, maybe another dimension. As do I.
...
From assorted commentators I have heard that it is unfair or condescending to say that all Trump voters were racists, or sexists, or that they hated foreigners. All right. But if they were not, they were willing to accept an awful lot of racism and sexism and xenophobia in the deal they made with their champion...
...
I know that Mr. Trump was elected, in part, because too many people were still hurting in this economy, from the terrible disruptions of their lives and their communities over the last 25 years...

Yet that is no excuse for what we did last November.
...
Today’s passive, unhappy Americans sat on their couches and chose a strutting TV clown to save us.

What they have done is a desecration, a foolish and vindictive act of vandalism, by which they betrayed all the best and most valiant labors of our ancestors. We don’t want to accept this, because we cannot accept that the people, at least in the long run of things, can be wrong in our American democracy. But they can be wrong, just like any people, anywhere. And until we do accept this abject failure of both our system and ourselves, there is no hope for our redemption.
-Kevin Baker

This is what I have been escaping from recently. I could have written 95% of Mr. Baker's essay. I have written it. The 5%: that Trump voters were "hurting" economically. No, they weren't. Trump voters are racist scum. America 2.0 is no shining city upon a hill. America 2.0 is a festering pond of racist scum.

A test off Florida in June of Britain's Trident missile nuclear deterrent failed and Her Majesty's government, then under David Cameron, now under Teresa May, didn't tell Parliament.The UK now relies on Trump for our nuclear weapons – we need to spend more than ever before to free ourselves-The Independent

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Dallas had a 14-29 record going into that game, too. Worst loss in LA history to a 14-29 team. Jeezie peezie. See, this is why I could never be a coach. (This and because I don't know shit.) I'd a killed my players.

Holy cow, the Dallas "Mavericks" beat the "Lakers" 122-73. Most onesided loss in team history. Read a little about the "Lakers" earlier today. Had an eight game losing streak and a five. New coach Luke Walton was saying the players weren't putting out the effort. Didn't show up today. Like Luke Walton. Like Luke alot. Luke's not going to last with results like those and for that reason.

And Pittsburgh scored. 10-6, momentarily to be 10-7...NO! The bird hit the air pump some kinda way and it shall remain 10-6. That kerfluffle was just moments ago but already it has been said a million times, "That could come back to haunt the 'Steelers.'" Yeah, sure could. Could haunt 'em, it could. Could be they'll have nightmares about it. They'll see ghosts who will haunt them and go "BOO!" and scare them shitless. Could happen.

Man, the Atlanta "Falcones" packed up Green Bay and shipped 'em back up nawth with prejudice, 44-21. They play the winner of Pittsburgh-New England in Super Bowl LI. The Evil Empire is leading the "Stillers" ten-zip but the Pitts are at the NE 5.

Reaves did something:

UO assistant football coach charged with DUII; to be fired

(The responsible employee of the worthy "Register-Guard" should be charged with headline-writing under the influence.)

10:42 am, January 22

“University of Oregon assistant football coach David Reaves was arrested last night and charged with Driving Under the Influence by members of the Eugene Police Department. Reaves has been placed on administrative leave and the process to terminate his employment with cause has commenced. The University has high standards for the conduct of employees and is addressing this matter with the utmost of seriousness.”

...

Reaves’ arrest is the second major off-season incident involving the Oregon football team in the past two weeks after three players were recently hospitalized following supervised workouts. All three have been released from the hospital. Oregon’s new strength and conditioning coach Irele Oderinde was suspended for a month without pay as a result of the incident.Oregon Ducks football coach Willie Taggart calls hospitalized players tough, defends suspended coach
-The Oregonian

"I trust him," Taggart told CSNNW.com. "I love what he did with our football team at South Florida and I know what he could do with our guys here. But now a good guy, a good strength coach, is being portrayed as somebody just whipping our kids' butts and that's wrong."

It was by Degas. Why did that take so fucking long to find? Jesus Christ, that is a famous painting. L'Absinthe. Absinthe will frigging animate your soul, hoo-doggie. Originally title Dans un Café, In a Coffee Shop.

There's this painting. Impressionist. A bar girl is sitting in the bar, in her costume, I think, slumped, staring off into nothing. I'm looking for that painting because it approximates the state of my soul. Can't remember who it was by. Thought it was Degas. Apparently not.

This is going to be one of those things, isn't it. Not being able to find Remembrance. I got frustrated a minute ago and wanted to knock all the books off the shelf. I've looked three times. This isn't the fucking New York Public Library, you know, this is an 800 sq foot apartment. I've closed my eyes tight and opened them again. I can't see it..Ah! It's in the car. That was animating me. Animating me into a damn psychosis. All right, that's a load off. Baby steps.

I am preoccupied and I am restless. I am distracted. I am engaging in escapism, I know. I have not read or written anything serious in a long time. I cannot read or write anything serious. I am disaffected. I turned again today to Pilgrim's Way but was disinterested. I turned to Remembrance of Things Past but couldn't find it. Couldn't find a three-volume 1,000 book. Even as I was looking for it I was thinking, "You're not going to take up Remembrance." I have no animating principle. I am not animated. Nothing is animating me. My soul is blah.

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This is "Public Occurrences," a blog dedicated to all bloggers,

...and to the original bloggers, the pamphleteers of revolutionary America, and to the original blog, Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, the first newspaper published in North America on September 25, 1690, it's first and only issue.